A terrestrial weathering and wind abrasion analog for mound and moat morphology of Gale crater, Mars

A striking feature of Gale crater is the 5.5 km high, central layered mound called Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons)—the major exploration target for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. Within the 154 km diameter crater, low plains (Aeolis Palous) resemble a moat surrounding Mount Sharp. There is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2017-05, Vol.44 (9), p.4000-4007
Main Authors: Chan, Marjorie A., Netoff, Dennis I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abrasion
Amplification
Analogs
Curiosity (Mars rover)
eolian
Exploration
Fluid flow
Gale crater
intracrater
Jurassic
Local winds
Mars
Mars craters
Mars rovers
Mars surface
moat
Morphology
Plains
Rocks
Sandstone
Sedimentary rocks
Shape
Strong winds
terrestrial analog
Terrestrial environments
Velocity
Vortices
Weathering
Wind
Wind abrasion
Winds
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Summary:A striking feature of Gale crater is the 5.5 km high, central layered mound called Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons)—the major exploration target for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. Within the 154 km diameter crater, low plains (Aeolis Palous) resemble a moat surrounding Mount Sharp. There is a similar terrestrial analog in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of southern Utah, USA, where a distinctive weathering pit 60 m wide by 20 m deep contains a central pillar/mound and moat. Strong regional and local winds are funneled to amplify their velocity and produce a Venturi effect that sculpts the pit via wind abrasion. Although the Navajo pit is orders of magnitude smaller than Gale crater, both show comparable morphologies accompanied by erosional wind features. The terrestrial example shows the impact of weathering and the ability of strong winds and vortices to shape lithified sedimentary rock over long periods of time. Key Points A large sandstone weathering pit with an interior pillar is a valuable analog to understand the intracrater mound in Gale crater on Mars Focused winds abrade a groove and sculpt the decameter‐scale Jurassic Navajo Sandstone pit The weathering pit example is a bridge between small‐scale wind tunnel experiments and the kilometer‐scale landscape features on Mars
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1002/2017GL072978